Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez became friends after a match together on the indies: they had a similar backstory and passion for wrestling. Cora joined WWE in January 2020, but found her footing when NXT 2.0 started out. She was a skater girl babyface who for most of her time feuded with the NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose and her faction Toxic Attraction (Jacy Jayne and Gigi Dolin). Cora had a few multi-woman title matches but came up short in all of them so she moved on to trying to dethrone Jacy & Gigi, the tag champs at the time.
Roxanne signed with the WWE in April 2022 and was immediately thrown into the main title scene. She won her first match on NXT against Jacy, then faced Mandy the next week, but came up short. Roxanne entered the first-ever NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament, with the winner getting a women’s title shot. This is when Cora & Roxanne reunite, in a backstage segment where Cora hugs Roxanne after one of Roxanne’s matches, Roxanne says that Cora was the only one who understood her and wouldn’t be in NXT without her.
Cora supports Roxanne and preps her throughout the tournament, for wins over Kiana James & Lash Legend, before defeating Tiffany Stratton in the finals.
After the tournament, the two friends team up to challenge Jane & Dolin for the belts. After winning a number one contenders match, the title opportunity is set for NXT Great American Bash.
The stage was set and it was time, Roxanne & Cora were challenging for the Women’s Tag Titles, a goal they had set before either even got to NXT. After a hard-fought match Roxanne would hit Pop-Rox onto Gigi for the win while Cora took out Jacy.
Following them winning the tag titles, they had a backstage segment where Cora talked about how good it felt to finally defeat Toxic Attraction and become champion with her best friend. Roxanne said she wanted to end Toxic Attraction for good, using her breakout tournament contract for a title match against Mandy Rose on the upcoming NXT.
When NXT started that next week, we saw a segment in the parking lot: Cora & others were checking on Roxanne as she had been jumped when arriving at the arena. That damn parking lot… it’s deadly.
The first person that comments on Roxannes attack is Cora in a backstage segment where she is mad and thinks that Toxic Attraction are the ones who attacked Roxanne because they were “mad about losing” and “scared” of her. Toxic Attraction cut a promo in the ring and Cora interrupts them where it looks like she’s going to take Roxanne’s spot in the title match – until Roxanne’s music hits.
It looks like Roxanne is going to dethrone Mandy after she hits Pop-Rox on the outside and throws the champion in the ring, but Jacy is distracting the ref. Roxanne goes to enter the ring, but Cora grabs her title, hitting Roxanne with it, betraying her friend in the middle of arguably the biggest match of her career. Before Roxanne can get up to her feet Mandy hits her with a knee and pins her. Cora gets into the ring and hits Roxanne multiple times with her skateboard, which is how NXT ends.
The next week Cora would come out with the tag title. She says she had been the face of the women’s division before Roxanne arrived but that attention went to Roxanne as soon as the latter debuted. She was mad that Roxanne challenged Mandy instead of trying to make the tag titles mean something. Cora calls Roxanne selfish and thinks that Roxanne didn’t care about her, before dumping her tag title belt in the trash – as to her all the title represents now is a lie. This was a really good first heel promo from Cora, it got a bunch of heat on her because of how popular Roxanne is after being the inaugural ROH women’s champion and seemingly being WWE’s top signing from her years group.
Three weeks later Roxanne expresses her thoughts on the turn. She was the number one Cora Jade stan – they only had each other to push them to improve. Roxanne never thought Cora would do this, her friendship with Cora meant more than the title, she was in denial but it turned to rage. She challenges Cora to match at Heatwave. Cora initially declines, but the match is confirmed next week after Roxanne saves Cora’s would-be next victim. This segment was a very good first segment from Roxanne to express her emotions since this is the first chance to see Roxanne actually express herself. It’s very well done and she doesn’t disappoint as she voices things in a way where you can so easily feel for her.
Before the match, Roxanne says that she is nervous, she never thought she would have to fight Cora but she will make Cora pay for all that she’s done to her. During the fight, Roxanne grabs the kendo stick that Cora had begun carrying with her. Roxanne thinks about hitting Cora but doesn’t, giving it to the ref – but Cora used the opportunity to blindside her, hitting a DDT for the win.
Roxanne says she doesn’t recognize who Cora is anymore. Her heart broke when Cora hit that belt over her back. Her friendship with Cora is over, she will not hesitate next time. This is my favorite Roxanne promo of the entire feud you can feel everything she is feeling, you can feel it in her voice and her expressions.
During the NXT UK invasion of NXT, Cora challenges legendary Joshi wrestler Meiko Satomura to a match. Satomura declines, as she is already fighting Roxanne which pisses Cora off as Roxanne is once again getting the opportunity to shine. Meiko beats Roxanne, after the match Cora attacks Roxanne but Meiko makes the save. The Meiko & Roxanne match is a banger, definitely suggest checking it out.
The next time we see the two former friends is on the Grayson Waller Effect where a match is announced for Halloween Havoc – a Weapons Wild match.
The match that seemingly is supposed to end it all is finally happening. Roxannes comes out with a trash can that has a skateboard in it as a throwback to that first attack from Cora. They battle all over the arena even taking a nasty bump off the platform above the crowd through a table. During the end period of the match Cora says that Roxanne was never her friend, but as Roxanne counters she says “You were always my friend” before hitting the Pop-Rox onto a pile of chairs, getting the pin. Roxanne finally gets the revenge she’s been trying to get for a while. This was my favorite part of the feud as the whole match showed how much they hated each other but the ending was perfectly done, showed that Roxanne still deep down cares about Cora.
This was one of my favorite rivalries of the year, I had to write about it. I can’t wait for their grudge match, hopefully in the main event for the title.
